Boxed.com enters the fresh delivery ring

August 11, 2017

Shoppers in New York, New Jersey, Atlanta and Boston in search of fast, fresh foods are in luck. Boxed.com has launched Boxed Express, a service that promises delivery of groceries within three hours. Fresh vegetables, meat and fish, -- as well as frozen options -- can be ordered between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Orders can be placed the same day or up to five days ahead of time.

"This is a highly competitive space, and as consumer expectations change, we wanted to offer our members a full range of goods; fresh and frozen is an essential part of that,” Ashish Prashar, a Boxed representative, told a grocery trade publication. “We are expected to offer flexible, efficient and affordable delivery to our members, and, for that reason, source our products from a variety of local and national vendors."

According to the NPD Group, only 7 percent of consumers currently shop online for groceries. However, adoption is expected to increase as retailers determine ways the best deliver fresh options in a timely fashion.

At Pulse 2017, a recent grocery-technology-focused event hosted by the Food Marketing Institute, Linda Crowder, senior director of Peapod Interactive at Ahold Delhaize's Peapod subsidiary, based in the Chicago area, noted that the future of grocery delivery “is going to be where fresh goes.”